Analyzing Competition Essay Example for Free

Analyzing Competition Essay As 2001 comes to a close, Sa Sa contemplates what else can be done to improve profitability and keep on growing. 1. What were the reasons for Sa Sa’s early success? SA SA was creating value for its customers by providing them with quality products at a fair price. Sa Sa was first of its kind to pioneer the concept of discount store for the cosmetics (create and control). It . did is fast in the initial stages of the business (compete) by making the stores bigger and better from 40 sqft in 1978 to 750 sqft in 1985 to 10 stores in mid 1990s. Sa Sa was able to provide value to its customer by keeping the purchase prices low by using â€Å"parallel importation† and passed saving to the customers. One of the other important factor was Sa Sa listened to its customer demand (which products to stock). Sa Sa allowed the customer to touch and feel the cosmetics products that drove the demand. We also see Sa Sa’s strategy to deter the new entrants by holding onto old location. They controlled the inventory depending on the sales rate and the shelf life of the products. Sa Sa uniquely combined the combined the cosmetics product knowledge to advice the customer and provided the products at lower cost in comfortable environment, thus creating value for the customer for the first time that no one has done before. This is Resource Based View, outcome of which gave Sa Sa a competitive advantage. Sa Sa developed the Core competency: Rare: Sa Sa’s core compentancy was rare until it disclosed it in IPO Valuable –yes customers found it valuable and made Sa Sa an household name. The sales people were one of the best trained in the industry but were poached by the competition. In early days the Sa Sa operated as a family-run culture, help retain them but afte the IPO, when Sa Sa changed strategy to be creating value for the Shareholders hard to imitate: it was not hard to imitate as evidenced by the whole slew of competitier copied once known. non-substitutable-yes, there were various product segments/tiers; Sa Sa focused top brand names Core Products Business Units End products Porters 5 forces: Industry Rivalry: Concentration: Diversity of the Competitors Product Differentiation Excess Capacity Exit Barriers Cost Conditions Supplier Power Threat Of Entry Buyer Power Threat of substitute What changes have occurred in the stores since Sa Sa’s early success? (Not including the strategic issues outlined in Figure A. ) Sa Sa was able to offer the cosmetics at a cheaper prices than competitors combined with the sales team able to help the customers with personal needs and using customer insights to buy/stock the inventories, Sa Sa had built unique value for the customers. Since the IPO, many new competitors (bonjour and rainbow) have entered the market. They are able to copy the core competency that was first developed by Sa Sa. Additionally very well known drugstores (Watson’s and Manning’s), have started offering the cosmetics! Both have used the existing infrastructure and corporate capital resource to position themselves as significant players with 13% annual growth rate. Many departmental stores have tried to differentiate themselves by providing all products from a brand and by offering free beauty advice in the stores. Some have tried to target the Who are Sa Sa’s key competitors? What implications does your assessment have for the decisions that Simon Kwok is facing about the future of Sa Sa? What were the key success factors behind Sa Sa’s story? What do you see as the major challenges and structural threats faced by Sa Sa? Market research. Review the market research data contained in the case. What are the key insights that you can learn from the findings? Assess the strategic initiatives that Sa Sa undertook recently. What are the positives negatives. How is Sa Sa perceived by consumers? What should Sa Sa do next? Whom to target? How should the company position itself against the likes of Bonjour? Other strategic moves?

Say Yes by Tobias Wolff & Bread by Sandra Cisneros :: Race Relationships Love

Say Yes by Tobias Wolff If two people love each other regardless of any difference they may have, then why are there† lots of things to consider†( paragraph 36)? Answer the question within the context of the story. According to the context, the â€Å"lots of things to consider† is referring to the race, background by the husband. In his opinion, beside whether love this person or not, race, ethics background is also a very important factor to consider whether they should marry or not. He stated that if two people are not from the same race, they are not in the same culture, they have different language. People from different race never know each other. Compare the husband’s actions to his wife’s reactions. Are these people understanding each other? If he had said yes, would their relationship have changed? If so, how? From the husband’s action to his wife’s reaction, they didn’t understand each other much even though the husband was trying to show how considerate he is. But he failed to understand what his wife truly wants to hear and wants to see in the conversation on the matter of â€Å"whether white people should marry black people.† In the husband’s view he thinks that it was ridiculous to think this kind of question when his wife asked him whether he will marry her if she were black. He thinks that it will never happen. If it happened, his wife will be another person but not the same her anymore. In his views, as he never think that this two race should get marry, he will not allow himself to fall in love or even date a black girl. He is telling the truth and trying to explaining that to his wife. However he failed to realized that that was not what his wife wanted to hear. In fact from the context we can guessed for his wife, it’s not the greatest m atter on whether white people should marry black people, what she matters is whether they love each other of not. For her, she thinks that if two people love each other, everything can be solved and race is not a big deal. She wants her husband to agree with this and showed that he will love her and marry her no matter what race she is. Bread by Sandra Cisneros This story, in some ways, is about crossing borders.

Analysis of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech

Nhat Nguyen Patrick Clayton Cantrell English 1010-051 23 October, 2012 Analysis of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ’s â€Å"I Have a Dream† Speech Amidst the bigotry and racial violence of the Civil Rights Movement, there stood a shining example of brotherhood, unity, and an undying thirst for equality. In what was known as the March of Washington, an estimated total of 200,000 people of all races—observers estimated that 75–80% of the marchers were black and the rest were  white  and non-black minorities—took to the streets of Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963 in an effort to raise awareness of the ongoing racial injustice in the work field and in everyday life. It was on this momentous day that the great Martin Luther King Jr. , one of the most powerful and influential voices of the Civil Rights Movement, gave one of history’s most memorable speeches. His speech, later came to be known as the â€Å"I Have a Dream† speech, served to b ring into light the injustice experienced daily by the African American population of the United States.In his famous speech, King outlined the racial discrimination and social inequalities that inhabit the great country whose creed explicitly states â€Å"all men are created equal. † This constituted the main purpose of his speech: to encourage and empower the attendees and those at home to challenge the widespread discrimination and the status quo of the time. Bigotry had a stranglehold on all aspects of life during the Civil Rights era. From childhood, racial themes and motifs were embedded into the very being of the child. A plethora of consequences arose from this.Whites usually aged into adulthood with the belief that racial superiority belonged to them because of the color of their skin. Most African Americans, on the other hand, grew up with beliefs very much contradictory to those of their white counterparts. Many aged with the preconceived notion that racial inferio rity accompanied being black. Martin Luther King, in his speech, endeavored to end this narrow-minded approach to race by encouraging his audience to rise above what they once accepted as a social norm and be the light that would lead that generation out of blind hatred for their fellow an. He preached brotherhood and equality and electrified the crowd when he demanded the immediate realization of the â€Å"promises of democracy† (King). He galvanized the crowd to rebel from the dark, secluded â€Å"valley of segregation† and enter into the â€Å"sunlit path of racial justice† (King). He closed this portion of his speech by once again reiterating the importance of immediate action. He called for justice for all of mankind, be they black, white, or any other race.Besides the obvious fact that he was speaking to the audience present, King’s speech was meant for a much broader audience. Specifically, his speech was targeted at those who desired to continue t he economic and social oppression of African Americans. This could clearly be seen when King states, â€Å"And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual† (King). In this sentence, King concentrated his words against â€Å"those. â€Å"Those† are the people who continued to disregard African Americans as equals. King wanted to make it known that he and millions alike would not quit until justice was dealt and democracy rang through the land. In another explicit example, King talks directly to â€Å"those† again. â€Å"There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, ‘When will you be satisfied? ’† (King). He goes on to answer this question by saying that he and other civil rights activists will never be satisfied so long as injustice and discrimination remain a synonymous part of the United States’ culture.He ensured t he people whose intentions were to physically, mentally, and economically deter African Americans that America will not experience rest or tranquility until all black men, women, and children are granted their rights as citizens. The speech was as much a message to those oppressed as it was to the oppressors. Martin Luther King’s speech was well formatted with respect to harmony, with each prior point flowing harmoniously into the next. It was organized into two halves.The first half portrayed American society as a cesspool of intolerance, racism, and close-mindedness, and it also revealed the incongruence between the themes of the American Dream and the suffering of African Americans. In the first half of the speech, King called for action to alleviate these overriding themes in American society. In his â€Å"now is the time† paragraph, King emphasized to the audience that the time for action is now and rejected gradualism. In his â€Å"we can never be satisfied† paragraph, he set the conditions that must be met before he and others like him can rest.The second half of the speech depicted the dream of a fairer, more perfect union, free from the shackles of segregation and racial discord. In the most memorable part of the speech, Martin Luther King famously stopped reading from his written speech and began to speak earnestly of his â€Å"dream† concerning the future of America. In the part of the speech that became its namesake, King repeatedly bellows the phrase, â€Å"I have a dream† (King). In a brief 3-minute period, King gave one of history’s most beautiful pieces of rhetoric, summoning boisterous cheers from the masses of people.King concluded his masterpiece by articulating to the crowd his vision of a democratic America, emancipated from the chains of prejudice. His dream was that individuals from all corners of society—different in color, culture, and beliefs—could one day gather together in unit y with respect for one another. His comprehensive use of metaphors, imagery, and repetition served to persuade the audience to remain optimistic and faithful in the face of prejudice and despair. He appealed greatly to the crowd’s sense emotion and logic.He also masterfully used anaphora and allusions on several occasions in his moving speech. From under the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, King fittingly began his speech alluding to Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address. He started by saying â€Å"five score years ago† (King). This assisted in setting the mood for the rest of the speech and was particularly poignant since King was speaking from the steps on the Lincoln Memorial. King also alluded to the Declaration of Independence when speaking of â€Å"the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This allusion powerfully reiterated America’s promise to all her people. There are several allusions to Biblical passages in the speech . Perhaps one of the most notable was when King warned the oppressors of civil rights that he and everyone who challenged discrimination will never surrender until â€Å"justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream† (King). This was reference to Amos 5:24. It appealed impressively to the audience’s emotions, stirring up shouts of â€Å"hallelujah† within the crowd. Metaphors were used throughout the speech to help emphasize and sometimes exaggerate the ppression experienced by the African American population during that era. King frequently compared discrimination to a desolate valley and the path to racial justice as a â€Å"sunlit† one. He would often describe oppression as a searing heat to intensify the pain that it caused. He described African Americans’ poor economic position as a â€Å"lonely island of prosperity  in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity† (King). This helped accentuate the situat ion that African Americans were in. King incorporated anaphora and repetition in his speech in order to stress the importance of key themes.One of the lesser known anaphora used was King’s repetition of â€Å"one hundred years later† (King). Here, King referred to the fact that 100 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, his people are still hampered by the weight of inequality. He repeated the phrase â€Å"now is the time† (King) in an attempt to inspire the audience to act immediately and to demand change that instance. The most famous and most often cited anaphora used was the repetition of the phrase â€Å"I have a dream† (King) In that passage King revealed his vision of a better tomorrow for America.He stated that even though he faces difficulties, he still maintained that dream. This helped to strengthen this portion of his speech tremendously. On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of history’s most beauti fully executed pieces of rhetoric. The language incorporated in the speech helped convey King’s message to America: challenge discrimination and the status quo and strive for an equal society. This will live on as one of King’s greatest contributions to the advancement of civil rights. Today, it remains a significant part of King’s legacy.

Efficient Market Hypothesis - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 3071 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Marketing Essay Type Analytical essay Level High school Did you like this example? Literature Review 2.0 Introduction In order to better understand the origin and the idea behind the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), the first section deals with an overview of the EMH. Section 2 deals with the Random Walk Model which is a close counterpart of the EMH. We then have examine the different degrees of information efficiency that exist, namely the weak form efficiency, semi-strong form efficiency and the strong form efficiency. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Efficient Market Hypothesis" essay for you Create order In section 4, we have a brief overview of the different types of statistical tests that have been used in the literature to examine the weak form efficiency. Section 5 explains the implications of efficient markets for investors. Section 6 2.1 Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) The concept of efficiency is one of the essential concepts in finance. Market efficiency is a term used in many different contexts with many different meanings. Market efficiency involves three related concepts- allocation efficiency, operational efficiency and informational efficiency. * Allocation efficiency: A characteristic of an efficient market in which capital is allocated in a way that benefits all participants. It occurs when organizations in the public and private sectors can obtain funding for the projects that will be the most profitable, thereby promoting economic growth * Operational efficiency: A marketcondition that exists when participants can execute transactions and receive services at a price that fairly equates to the actual costs required to provide them.Economists use this term to describe the way resources are employed to facilitate the operation of the market. It is usually desirable that markets carry out their operations at as low a cost as possible . * Information efficiency: The actual market price of a share should reflect its intrinsic value. Information efficiency implies that the observed market price of a security reflect all information relevant to the pricing of the security. The investor can manage to earn merely a risk-adjusted return from his investment, as prices move instantaneously and in an unbiased manner to any news. The efficiency in the market for financial assets and assets returns refers here to the information efficiency and should not be confused with the other types of efficiency. As explained by Rahman and Hossain (2006): For a stock market to be efficient, stock prices must always fully reflect all relevant and available information. This definition can be expressed as ÃÆ'† Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢(Ri,t, Rj,t ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ | ÃÆ' Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  M t-1) = ÃÆ'† Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢( Ri,t, Rj,t ÃÆ' ¢ à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ | ÃÆ' Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  M t-1, ÃÆ' Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  a t-1), where ÃÆ'† Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢(.) = a probability distribution function, Ri,t = the return on security i in period t, ÃÆ' Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  M t-1 = the information set used by the market at t ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“ 1, ÃÆ' Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  a t-1 = the specific information item placed in the public domain at t ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“ 1. This equation has two important implications. 1. Specific information item at t-1 (ÃÆ' Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  a t-1) cannot be used to earn non zero abnormal return. 2. When a new information item is added to the information set ÃÆ' Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  M, it is instantaneously reflected on market prices. The concept of market efficiency was first introduced by Bachelier (1900). Since then, there has been many studies like Working (1934), Cowles and Jones (1937), Kendall (1953), Cootner (1964). However it was Fama (1965) who first used termed it as ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"efficient marketÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ . Fama (1970) later stated the sufficient but not necessary conditions for efficiency: i. there are no transaction costs in trading securities; ii. all available information is costlessly available to all market participants, and iii. all agree on the implications of current information for the current price and distributions of future prices of each security He also identified three degrees of informational efficiency namely the weak form, the semi-strong form and the strong form. 2.2 Random Walk Model (RWM) The Random Walk Model is a close counterpart of the Efficient Market Hypothesis. The model was originally examined by Kendall (1953). It states that stock price fluctuations are independent of each other and have the same probability distribution. Thus the Random Walk theory suggests that stock price change randomly, making it impossible to predict stock prices. The Random Walk Model is linked to the belief that markets are efficient and that investors cannot beat or predict the market because stock prices reflect all available information and the new information arises randomly. As mentioned in Fama (1970) the two hypotheses constituting the Random Walk Model , that is (i) successive price changes are independent and (ii) successive changes are identically distributed, are implicitly assumed in the Efficient Market Hypothesis. The Random Walk Model is in direct opposition to technical analysis, which suggests that a stocks future price can be forecasted based on historical info rmation through observing chart patterns and technical indicators. 2.3 3 Forms of Market Efficiency 2.3.1 Weak-Form Efficiency Fama (1970) stipulates that no investor can earn excess returns by formulating trading strategies based on historical price or return information in a weak-form efficient market. The weak-form efficiency thus assumes that the price of a stock fully reflects all information contained in past prices, that is the historical sequence of prices, rate of returns and other historical market information. A weak-form efficient market implies that it is of no use to engage in technical analysis that use past prices alone to find undervalued stocks. In order to test whether past share prices can be used to predict future share prices( that is, weak-form efficiency), statistical or econometric tests can be used. These studies seek to study the evolution of share prices from one period to the next period and try to detect correlation between the successive price changes. Technical analysts study the evolution of past share prices, with the aim of predicting share prices to make gains. 2.3.2 Semi-Strong Form Efficiency Fama (1970) described the semi-strong form efficiency as one where share price fully reflect all information contained not only in past prices but all public information. All public information includes capital market information as used in the weak form Efficient Market Hypothesis(EMH) as well as non-market information such as earnings, dividend announcements, price earnings ratio, information about the economy and political news (Reilly1997). New public information is almost instantaneously integrated in share price and the share price is adjusted so as to reflect the true value of the share. This means that an investor cannot use public information to generate gains on the stock market. In order to test for semi-strong form efficiency, event studies are often used. These event studies are performed by analyzing the effect of the release of new public information on the share price. If the market is semi-strong form efficient, the new public information ( for example annual re ports, earning announcement or dividend announcement) is instantaneously integrated in the share price, so as to reflect the intrinsic value of the share. New information can be both good or bad. Thus they can cause increases or decreases at their release. 2.3.3 Strong Form Efficiency Under strong form efficiency, the current price reflects all information, public as well as private. Private information, in this context, means information not yet published. On the stock market, there are professionals (for example security analysts, fund managers) who have private as well as public information. Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) assumes that no investor has monopolistic access to any information. This means that as new public and private information is released, it is incorporated in share price to reflect its true value. An investor will not be able to consistently find undervalued or overvalued shares and make gains on the strong form efficient market. Fama (1970) perceives a strong form efficient market as one where investors are not expected to earn excess returns by relying on inside information. To test whether past share prices, public and private information can used to predict future share prices, the investment records and gains generated by professi onal investors are often studied. Investors should not be consistently able to make gains by using public and private information. At all moments, the share prices incorporate all public and private information to reflect the true value of the shares. 2.4 Statistical Tests to examine validity of Weak-Form EMH In order to examine the validity of the weak form efficiency, a number of statistical tests have been used in the literature. These tests can be categorized into two groups: i. Using mechanical trading rules also known as filter rules. These rules test for the possibility of non-linear dependence existing in the price data. Filter rules were first used by S.A Alexander (1961) and later Fama and Blume (1966) added to the literature. Professor Alexanders filter techniques attempts to apply a sophisticated criteria to identify movements in stock prices. An x percent filter is defined as follows: If the daily closing price of a particular security moves up at least x percent, buy and hold the security until its price moves down at least x percent from a subsequent high, then sell and go short (Fama and Blume, 1966). The short position is then maintained until the daily closing price rises at least x percent above a subsequent low when one is going to cover and buy. Moves less tha n x percent in either direction are ignored. ii. Statistical tests of independence between successive price changes. Serial autocorrelation tests and run tests are among the most popular tests. Some of the researches in this field use Spectral Analysis which decomposes a time series into a spectrum of cycles of different length. This spectral decomposition of a time series yield a spectral density function that measures the contribution of each of the frequency bands to the overall variance of the times series. There is also a relatively new test introduced by Lo and Mackinlay (1988), it is called the Variance Ratio which is based on the heteroscedasticity problem. The basic idea behind the Lo and Mackinlay (1988) variance-ratios test is that if a natural logarithm of a time series is a pure random walk, then, the variance of its k-differences in a finite sample grows linearly with the difference, Let (pt) denote a time series consisting of T observations p1,p2,ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â ‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦,pT of asset returns. Then, the variance-ratio of the k-th difference, VR(k), is defined as: VR(k)= ÃÆ' Ãƒâ€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢2(k)/ÃÆ' Ãƒâ€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢2(1) where, VR(k) is the variance-ratio of the shares returns k-th differences; ÃÆ' Ãƒâ€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢2(k) is the unbiased estimator of 1/k of the variance of the shares returns k-th differences, under the null hypothesis; ÃÆ' Ãƒâ€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢2(1) is the variance of the first-differenced share returns series, and k is the number of days of base observations interval or lag (Ntim et al. ,2007). 2.5 Implications of EMH Market efficiency has important implications for both investors and authorities. If a market is inefficient, investors should doubt the ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"hold the marketÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  strategy and should try to ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"beat the marketÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ . While the authorities on their part should restructure the stock market by enacting effective law and enhancing financial media. The graph below shows the effect of EMH on stock prices. The straight line shows the reaction under EMH while the dotted lines show the over-reaction and under-reaction that occur with the existence of market imperfections. If a market is efficient, investors: 1. should not worry about investment analysis. They should rather concentrate on holding a well diversified portfolio. Investors holding an inefficient diversified portfolio will be exposed to risk which could be avoided and for which they will not be rewarded. In other words, the market only provides return for systematic risk, while specific risks have to be diversified away. 2. Should adopt a buy and hold policy once they have established their portfolios. This is because there is no advantage in changing from one group of securities to another. By doing this, there would be transaction costs which they would have to incur and as a result, the risk-adjusted return would be affected. Altering the composition of a portfolio can only be justified a) if the risk exposure has changed due to relative changes in the market value of the constituent securities. b) if tax payments can be minimized. Other implications of EMH are: * Price changes are random and unpredictable * Investors are not easily fooled by the glossy financial reports or ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¹Ã…“creative accounting techniques * Timing of new issues of securities are not important since prices represent the intrinsic and will reflect the degree of ris k in the share. Thus under EMH neither fundamental nor technical analysis can be used to achieve superior gains. Investors should concentrate on constructing and holding efficiently diversified portfolios. 2.6 Empirical Evidences Based on the literature, it can be seen that there are two competing schools of thoughts about market efficiency. The first school argues that markets are efficient and as a result, returns cannot be predicted. For example early studies (Working, 1934; Kendall, 1943, 1953; Cootner, 1962; Osborne, 1962; Fama, 1965) on developed markets support the weak form efficiency of the market with a low degree of serial correlation and transaction cost. The studies in this school of thought, support the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) and show that price changes could not be used to forecast future price changes, especially after transaction costs were taken into account. The second school, on the other hand, provides empirical evidence of ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¹Ã…“anomalies that contradict the theory of efficient markets. Some of these studies are Summers (1986), Keim (1988), Fama and French (1988), Lo and MacKinlay (1988) and Poterba and Summers (1988). They found some ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¹Ã…“anomalies, which could not be explained by the theory of Fama (1965). Some of the market anomalies that they found are:  · January Effect/Turn of The Year Effect Stock returns are usually abnormally high during the first few days of January. The January effect occurs because many investors choose to sell some of their stock right before the end of the year in order to claim a capital loss for tax purposes. Then they quickly reinvest their money after the new year, causing stock prices to rise. Rozeff and Kinney (1976) was among the first to prove this market anomaly. Rozeff and Kinney (1976) methodology gives smaller companies greater relative influence than would be true in value-weighted indices where large firms dominate. Subsequent researches (Reinganum, 1983; Roll, 1983, among others) later confirm that the January effect is a small cap phenomenon.  · Size Effect/Small Firm Effect The Size Effect is the tendency for firms with a small market capitalization to outperform larger companies over the long term. For example Banz (1981) and Reinganum (1981) showed that small-capitalization firms on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) earned a return in excess of what would be predicted by the Sharpe (1964) ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“ Linter (1965) capital asset-pricing model (CAPM) from 1936-1975. However as mentioned by G.W. Schwert(2003, p.943), it seems that the small-firm anomaly has disappeared since the initial publication of the papers that discovered it. Alternatively, the differential risk premium for small-capitalization stocks has decreased over the years.  · Weekend Effect/Day of The Week Effect This is a phenomenon in which stock returns on Mondays are often significantly lower than those of the immediately preceding Friday. French (1890) observed this anomaly. He noted that the average return to the Standard and Poors (SP) Composite Portfolio was reliably negative over weekends in the periods 1953-1977. Again, like the size effect, the weekend effect seems to have disappeared, or at least substantially attenuated, since it was first documented in 1980.  · Value Effect/Price Earnings Ratio Effect The value effect refers to the tendency for stocks with low price earnings ratio to outperform portfolios consisting of stocks with a high price earnings ratio. Basu (1977) shows that investors holding low price earnings ratio portfolio earned higher returns. The existence of market anomalies have important implications. If stock returns do not follow a random process, then it is possible to design profitable trading strategies based on historical information 2.6.1 Empirical Evidences from Developing Countries Despite the large number of empirical studies that have been conducted to test the validity of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) in developed countries with booming financial markets, studies to support or dispute the efficiency or inefficiency of the African stock markets are quite limited. There is a small number of empirical studies analyzing emerging African equity markets with regards to weak form of market efficiency test. While some of these studies have analysed single markets ( e.g. Samuels and Yacout 1981; Parkinson 1984; Ayadi 1984; Dickinson and Muragu 1994; Osei 1998; Olowe 1999; Mecagni and Sourial 1999; Asal 2000; Adelegan, 2004; Dewotor and Gborglah, 2004; Ntim et al., 2007), others have analysed groups of countries (e.g. Claessens et al., 1995; Magnusson and Wydick, 2002; Smith et al., 2002; Appiah-Kusi and Menya, 2003; Simons and Laryea, 2004; Jefferis and Smith, 2005). However, while there are only a few empirical studies, their conclusions as to the effic iency and predictability of future stock returns have been mixed. For example Dickinson and Muragu (1994) shows that the Kenyan stock market is weak form efficient, in contrast to the results of Parkinson (1984). Also, most of the existing studies made use of conventional weak form testing techniques such as serial correlation tests. Samuels and Yacout (1981) and Parkinson (1984) were among the first to use serial correlation tests to examine the weak form efficiency on the African continent. Samuels and Yacout analysed the weak form market efficiency in weekly price series of 21 listed Nigerian firms from 1977 to 1979 and provided empirical evidence that the market was efficient. Parkinson on his part, analysed monthly price series of 30 listed Kenyan firms from 1974 to 1978 and rejected the weak form efficiency. Dickinson and Muragu (1994) reinvestigated the Kenyan market by applying run and serial correlation tests to weekly stock price series of 30 listed companies on the Nai robi Stock Exchange and their results were in contrast with Parkinson (1984). They demonstrated that successive price changes are independent of each other for the majority of the companies investigated. Most of the developing countries suffer from the problem of thin trading (Mlambo and Biekpe, 2005). The problems caused by thin trading have been widely acknowledged in financial market researches (e.g., Dimson, 1979; Cohen et al. ,1983; Butler and Simonds, 1987; Lo and Mackinlay, 1990a and b; Bowie, 1994; Muthuswamy and Whaley, 1994) . Fisher (1966) who was the first to identify the bias caused by thin trading in the serial correlation of index returns, explained that recorded prices of securities are not necessarily equal to their underlying theoretical values. This is because when a share does not trade, the price recorded remains the closing price when the share was last traded. However, while most of the African stock markets suffer from thin trading, many existing studie s fail to adjust for thin trading. For example recent studies conducted on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius (Appiah-Kusi and Menya, 2003 and Simons and Laryes, 2004) made used of conventional techniques and did not adjust for thin trading. Other studies (Kabba, 1998; Roux and Gilberson, 1978 and Poshawale, 1996) which have examined the behavior of stock price and rejected the weak-form efficiency, have explained that the inefficiency might be due to delay in operations and high transaction cost, thinness of trading and illiquidity in the market.